University of Vermont ScholarWorks @ UVM Graduate College Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 2019 Finding Faith in the Academy: Religious Exploration as a High-Impact Practice for Quarterlife Students Angela Erdmann University of Vermont Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Other Education Commons Recommended Citation Erdmann, Angela, "Finding Faith in the Academy: Religious Exploration as a High-Impact Practice for Quarterlife Students" (2019). Graduate College Dissertations and Theses. 1059. https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/1059 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate College Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FINDING FAITH IN THE ACADEMY: RELIGIOUS EXPLORATION AS A HIGH- IMPACT PRACTICE FOR QUARTERLIFE STUDENTS A Thesis Presented by Angela Erdmann to The Faculty of the Graduate College of The University of Vermont In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Education Specializing in Interdisciplinary Studies May, 2019 Defense Date: March 21, 2019 Thesis Examination Committee: Robert Nash, Advisor Elizabeth Fenton, Chairperson Jason Garvey, Ph.D. Cynthia J. Forehand, Ph.D., Dean of the Graduate College ABSTRACT This thesis argues for the inclusion of religious exploration among the commonly accepted list of high impact practices at institutions of higher education. In the last decade, colleges and universities have turned to high impact practices to bolster positive student outcomes in retention, graduation, campus involvement, and deep learning. In its basic forms, religion and spirituality have always been one way that humans have made sense of our most elemental questions: Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? At a time when faith and religion have become wedded to increasingly narrow ideological and political positions, student affairs professionals and educators are in a unique position to reclaim the meaning-making power of religious stories and help students examine their fundamental assumptions about their identities and purpose. To this end, I examine high impact practices as transformational experiences, and discuss how both general religious literacy and individual religious practice transform a student’s college experience and their life beyond. Using scholarly personal narrative, I recount my own quarterlife religious exploration and contrast that experience with what we know about how college students approach faith and religion today. Finally, I make specific recommendations about how to incorporate religious and spiritual learning in our curriculum and open a campus dialogue about faith and its role in the meaning- making endeavors of our quarterlife students. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my advisor, Robert Nash, for creating and sustaining the wonderful community of seekers that I have found in the interdisciplinary program. To Elizabeth Fenton and Jason Garvey, for the doors they opened for me in the classroom, and their kind assistance outside of it. To Veronica and Maren, who keep asking me the big, hard questions and who never shy away from the answers. Lastly, to N, who is an answer all by himself. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................... ii INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 1: RELIGIOUS EXPLORATION AS A HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICE . 6 Overview of High-Impact Practices ................................................................................. 6 Transformative Impacts of Religious Exploration ............................................................ 8 CHAPTER 2: PERSONAL LESSONS FROM QUARTERLIFE RELIGIOUS EXPLORATION ......................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 3: THE PATH FORWARD: CURRENT TRENDS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................ 43 Millennials, Generation Z and the Middle Way ............................................................. 43 Why I Leave .................................................................................................................. 45 Case Study: The Book of Mormon as Literature ............................................................ 54 Recommendations ......................................................................................................... 59 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 66 iii INTRODUCTION “It is my position that, particularly in the academy, religion must find an educationally appropriate voice. This is not a voice that panders, promotes, proselytizes, or practices. Rather, it is a voice that students must explore openly for its narrative strength and weaknesses, just as they have with any other kind of “voice” in the curriculum.” Robert Nash, Religious Pluralism in the Academy In 2018, PRRI, a nonpartisan organization that researches the role of religion and values in American public life, conducted a survey designed to examine American attitudes toward diversity and pluralism in the years following the election of President Trump. Among measures related to race and ethnicity, political party, and sexual orientation, some interesting (but perhaps not unsurprising) findings about religious pluralism emerged. Nearly a quarter of Americans seldom or never interact with someone who does not share their religion. Only about half of Americans who do interact with people from other religious backgrounds say that these interactions are somewhat or mostly positive. An alarmingly small percentage of these interactions take place at a school. Regardless of age and religious affiliation, a full 77 percent of Americans believe that Americans are divided over religion (Najle and Jones, 2019). At the same time, as part of a widespread adoption of so-called high-impact practices, many colleges and universities have implemented programs and courses related to “Diversity and Global Learning.” Diversity and Global Learning is one of eleven high- impact practices commonly acknowledged by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). The AAC&U defines Diversity and Global Learning as follows: “These studies—which may address US diversity, world cultures, or both—often explore 1 “difficult differences” such as racial, ethnic, and gender inequality, or continuing struggles around the globe for human rights, freedom, and power” (Kuh, 2008). While one can certainly argue that religion falls firmly into the category of “difficult differences,” the AAC&U makes no explicit mention of religion in this area. Colleges and universities have been eager to promote high-impact practices as a remedy for ongoing challenges related to persistence, retention, graduation, and student involvement. However, the metrics we use to define and operationalize positive student outcomes often mask the reality that our students face on the ground. Our students have come of age in an era of high partisanship and divisive rhetoric. They often face significant mental health challenges that are exacerbated by high-pressure academic environments and a sense of social isolation in their campus life. Many face crippling debt in order to finance their educational endeavors, and a tough job market when they complete their degree. And in the context of all of this overwhelming background noise, they must still grapple with the same questions that have always troubled quarterlife students: Who am I? What is my purpose? What do I want to do with the rest of my life? What is my responsibility to other people? Which values are most important to me? In its most basic forms, religion and spirituality have always been one way that humans have made sense of these elemental questions. We also know that religious exploration can be a transformative experience in a number of important ways. I hope to show that the transformative impacts of religious exploration align well with the goals of high-impact practices in higher education, and that religious exploration deserves its own category within the framework of high-impact practices. Given that only a small 2 percentage of Americans report interacting with people of different religious backgrounds at school, colleges and universities are in a unique position to reclaim the meaning-making power of religious exploration and make a significant impact with even small efforts to shift these numbers. Methodology To tell the story of the rise of high impact practices in higher education, I review current literature and research to investigate commonly recognized practices and their purported benefits for students. To examine the role that faith and religion already play in the contemporary student experience, I turn to a number of recent polls from the Pew Research Center and other organizations that illuminate the shifting religious identities of quarterlife students and the impact that those identities have on the way they interpret and move through the world.